Trio wins Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2026 and lays foundation of new era in neuroscience

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2026 is awarded for optogenetics, a method that makes it possible to show how nerve cells shape memories, feelings and behaviours in the living brain-

Dr Peter Hegemann- A Hertie Senior Research Chair for Neurosciences and a professor of Experimental Biophysics at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany

Dr Georg Nagel- A biophysicist and professor at the Department for Neurophysiology at the University of Würzburg in Germany

Dr Karl Deisseroth- D.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel discovered a remarkable protein, channelrhodopsin, in a single-celled alga, while Karl Deisseroth transformed the protein into a light-controlled switch for nerve cells. The laureates have laid the foundation of a new era in neuroscience.

“Optogenetics provides opportunities for mapping the brain in a way that we could once only dream of,” says Per Svenningsson, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine.

To understand how the brain forms memories, feelings and behaviours has long been a dream for researchers. Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel have been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries leading to optogenetics, which makes it possible to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain. This method is now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal the brain’s mysteries.